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Evans, Porte lose time in cycling Tour

Roger Vaughan

Cadel Evans and Richie Porte lost the opening battle, but are far from conceding this week's Tour Down Under.

While the pair lost valuable seconds to fellow Australian cycling star Simon Gerrans on stage one, they separately pointed out there will be plenty of chances to claw back that time in the six-day race.

Evans (BMC) finished ninth and Porte (Sky) was 29th at Angaston in the Barossa, as Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) won the stage and took the overall lead.

While Evans finished on the same time as Gerrans, time bonuses mean he is 11 seconds behind at ninth on the overall standings.

"It's a bit of a shame to lose (15) seconds already, but it's a long way.

"I was happy with how we were in the climb (near the finish), we were the first team into it."

Porte also noted the strong performance of new Australian team-mate Nathan Earle, who was brought in as a late replacement when Chris Sutton suffered a wrist fracture during Sunday night's curtain-raiser street race.